Now i know that when compared to champs like Aatrox, Fiora, Rivens,... Xin Zhao isn't quite what you'd call a "hard champ". Sure he has a skill shot in his W but to me (at least) he seems like an easy pick up and play champ, but there are those who say that Xin has much more to it

My ign is AC Roc and i'm (playing almost everything, but i'm trying to focus on being a) jungle main. I'm low dia atm and played everything the past few seasons but always return to jungle. I wanna focus on a few champs before the new season starts. My focus will be on Graves, Zac, Taliyah and I'm looking to add xin zhao to my champion pool. He's the strong early game duelist I'm lacking in my champ pool.

So the thing with xin zhao for me is that I can't really put as much early pressure as other junglers in my elo with xin. I see some Xin players take over the game with 4 kill participation pre 6, but whenever I play him I mostly just burn summoners on lanes and/or run into their jungler and kill them or burn their flash. After that the enemy jungler gets stronger while feeling useless in teamfights.

Glacial Augment actually lines up amazingly well with Xin's kit to keep the enemy permaslowed even if they try to dash away. You go in and slow them with Glacial Augment. By the time Glacial Augment wears off, your third Q is ready, by which point you knock him up, then W and the enemy is slowed again. When your W slow wears off, you E and slow them, and by the time that slow runs out, your Glacial Augment is back up and you get to repeat. And all the while, your Approach Velocity is active, giving you 15% movement speed basically for the entire duration of the fight.

As opposed to Phase Rush that speeds you up but does nothing for your teammates, the Glacial Augment slow means that they have a much harder time escaping you and your teammates, while also making it easier for your bonobo teammates to land their skillshots.

Another benefit is that Approach Velocity also lets you save your teammates by getting you to them faster, while they'd be shit out of luck with the normal Phase Rush rune page.

Plus, going Inspiration means you get access to Biscuits and Stopwatch, which are both very powerful survival tools. I've escaped so many situations with clutch Biscuits and Stopwatch that I for sure would have been killed in had I been using the standard Phase Rush rune page.

Cons:

You lose out on the 75% slow resistance for 3 seconds, which does sometimes come in handy when running away, although I personally find that most often it's really the hard CC that screws Xin over, not the slow (which is why Sterak's Tenacity + Shield is so good on him).

You also only really have two good choices for a secondary tree, either Precision or Sorcery.

If you go Precision, you don't lose Triumph and Legend: Alacrity compared to the standard Phase Rush rune page, but you do lose out on Nullifying Orb and Waterwalking. If you go Sorcery, you lose out on Triumph and Legend: Alacrity.

I personally go Sorcery because Nullifying Orb has saved my life more times than Triumph, and Waterwalking lets me duel and chase far better in the river than Legend: Alacrity does.

TLDR Without the extra damage that Phase Rush + Celerity used to give you, going Glacial Augment with Sorcery Tree Secondary means you generally get better ganks, fights, chasing, and survival. You miss out on a dagger's worth of AS at level 18 and those rare but ultra satisfying clutch Triumph heals.

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I'm leveling up to 30 and I'm playing XZ jungle as my secondary role. I'm playing him because he's the best early game jungler that I have. I'm playing him full offense (Warrior >> TriForce >> Sterak's is my standard build, adding DMP and a tank item [usually SV/Adaptive Helm/Thornmail/Randuin's depending on the game] as 6th item if it goes that long or rushing Tiamat + Lethality items before TriForce if snowballing hard). I run Conqueror as my keystone and basically as many damage runes as I can.

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So, I've been playing a few games in which I'm having a hard time sticking to my target (for example, sticking to a fed Zed/Akali in a teamfight, they also had an Ashe ADC // fed Pyke while also having an Anivia on the enemy team)

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I realize that I'm going too much into offense in games where I shouldn't, so I'm willing to give up a little bit of damage (I understand that AS isn't that amazing in XZ) for a little more defense in some games.

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Then, my question is this: against what team comps would you have no other choice but to give up the AS of Alacrity vs the Tenacity? I assume that Tenacity would often be preferred, but I would rather only do it when it's completely necessary (i.e probably against mobile assassin with potential to get fed + another utility oriented carry that will focus on letting everyone kite you for days)

I find that E max with a Warrior build accentuates Xin's strengths more than W max. 15 points of base damage per point in W as compared to 25 per point in E. Your W scales regardless if you're building AD, and the reduced cooldown that you get from leveling W doesn't seem all that strong, since you're reducing CDs with Q anyway. The AS steroid and mixed damage from E just seems so much stronger to me.

Is there any consensus as to why W max is the most popular? I mean, E max just seems like a no-brainer to me, and I have a lot of success with it. In fact, I've ONLY had success with E max on Xin.

Obviously since the death dance changes came through, is it safe to say gunblade can be completely replaced by death dance in all situations you would build it?
Cheaper, ad instead of borderline useless ap, burst reduction, etc..

Am I the only person who has no luck with the standard warrior>triforce>tank xin?

The times that I feel the MOST POWERFUL is when I play attack speed xin. Botrk, bloodrazor, even rageblade. Obviously it’s better for splitpushing/1v1s as opposed to team fights. But when I’m ahead... I feel like master yi style carry. Anyone else prefer attack speed builds with xin too??

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I’m new to Xin Zhao, I played a game today against an udyr that solo carried his team. I understand that he’s a stronger dueler but a weaker ganker, therefore I should avoid fighting him and try to apply as much pressure to lanes as possible.

But what do you do when I’m a level ahead and ahead in farm and i still can’t fight him and he’s getting off ganks?

Hello, I recently picked up Xin Zhao and have been playing him for the last week or so and I am really bad. I have tried watching guides and videos on youtube and learning the pathing and when to gank and all of that but I always end up going 1/9/3 or something. I don't really get how to 1v1 anyone and I usually end up spamming all of my abilities and losing. Can you guys help me out? IGN : Krickalicious